On October 25, former Supreme Court judge Justice Hima Kohli flagged the issue of gender discrimination and bias, which, though seemingly subsided on the surface, continue to operate surreptitiously, often leading women lawyers to face stereotypes and question their authority.
In 2023, out of the 788 judges in all High Courts, only 107 (13%) were women. The Punjab & Haryana and Madras High Courts ranked highest, with 13 women judges each. The Delhi High Court stood second with 10 women judges. However, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Patna, and Uttarakhand had no women judges last year.
As of October 2024, the Madras High Court has 14 women sitting judges, followed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court with 13. The Delhi High Court has seen a drop to 9 women judges, and the Bombay High Court has 10. The Telangana High Court has replaced the Calcutta High Court, which now has 8 and 6 women judges, respectively.
In 2023, five High Courts—Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Patna, and Uttarakhand—had no women judges. However, this year has narrowed the gap, with only two High Courts—Meghalaya and Tripura—having no women judges. Patna, Uttarakhand, and Manipur now have one woman judge each.
Another criterion is the ratio of women to total sitting judges in different High Courts. A few High Courts, such as Sikkim, Gujarat, Telangana, Delhi, and Punjab & Haryana, have a better ratio of sitting women judges to the total number of judges in those High Courts, even though the number of judges in many High Courts is less than their sanctioned strength.
The Allahabad High Court and Patna High Court have 3 and 1 sitting woman judge, respectively. The total number of sitting judges in the Allahabad High Court and Patna High Court is 84 and 33, respectively.
Usually, appointments to the Supreme Court are made from the pool of High Court judges.
However, a lack of representation at the High Court level translates to a lack of representation in the SC. The other pool for appointments is through the bar. So far, only one woman, Justice Indu Malhotra, has been elevated directly to the Supreme Court.
Currently, there are two women judges on the Supreme Court: Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Bela M. Trivedi.
Justice B.V. Nagarathna is poised to become the first woman Chief Justice of India
